e brought three hundred men furnished with
cannon, mortars, and other engines of war. Thenceforward the
bombardment was resumed more violently than before: roofs were broken
through, walls were battered, but there was more noise than work. In
La Rue Aux-Petits-Souliers a cannon-ball fell on to a table, round
which five persons were dining, and no one was hurt. It was thought to
have been a miracle of Our Lord worked at the intercession of Saint
Aignan, the patron saint of the city.[531] The people of Orleans had
wherewith to answer the besiegers. For the seventy cannon and mortars,
of which the city artillery consisted, there were twelve professional
gunners with servants to wait on them. A very clever founder named
Guillaume Duisy had cast a mortar which from its position at the crook
or spur by the Chesneau postern, hurled stone bullets of one hundred
and twenty _livres_ on to Les Tourelles. Near this mortar were two
cannon, one called Montargis because the town of Montargis had lent
it, the other named _Rifflart_[532] after a very popular demon. A
culverin firer, a Lorrainer living at Angers, had been sent by the
King to Orleans, where he was paid twelve _livres_[533] a month. His
name was Jean de Montesclere. He was held to be the best master of his
trade. He had in his charge a huge culverin which inflicted great
damage on the English.[534]

[Footnote 531: _Journal du siege_, pp. 16, 17.]

[Footnote 532: _Ibid._, p. 17. J.L. Micqueau, _Histoire du siege
d'Orleans par les Anglais_, translated by Du Breton, Paris, 1631, p.
27. Abbe Dubois, _Histoire du siege_, p. 287. Lottin, _Recherches_,
vol. i, pp. 209, 210.]

[Footnote 533: _Livre_, if it were of Paris, was equivalent to one
shilling, if of Tours, to ten pence (W.S.).]

[Footnote 534: _Journal du siege_, p. 18. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a
Domremy_, p. clxxxv. Loiseleur, _Compte des depenses faites par
Charles VII pour secourir Orleans_, in _Mem. Soc. Arch. de
l'Orleanais_, vol. xi, pp. 114, 186.]

A jovial fellow was Maitre Jean. When a cannon-ball happened to fall
near him he would tumble to the ground and be carried into the town to
the great joy of the English who believed him dead. But their joy was
short-lived, for Maitre Jean soon returned to his post and bombarded
them as before.[535] These culverins were loaded with leaden bullets
by means of an iron ramrod. They were tiny cannon or rather large guns
on gun-carriages. They could be moved easily.[536] A